I’m convinced that Rajon Rondo is the first guy off the second tier instead of the last guy off the first. He shot 1-for-10 last night, he’s shooting .377 this month, turning the ball over nearly five times a game, and bricks almost half his free throws. Yeah, yeah, I know all about those assists and steals. It isn’t worth it at a premium price. Remember that when you’re keeping and drafting for next year. Or just hope that August Adam remembers and that you read it here then.

Here’s what else I saw last night in fantasy basketball:

Kendrick Perkins – Returned to play his first 20 minutes with the Thunder, ending with 6/9/2. Add in a block or two, this is what you should expect for the next three weeks.

Daequan Cook – Scored 18 hot-handed points, as he went 6-for-9 from the field, all nine of which came from behind the arc. Or ark if you’re into animal pairs. I’ve written about Cook fewer than fie times this year, mostly because I can’t swear he’s played in more than five games this year. Cook’s roll is so minimal on the Thunder, I thought he played for the Bobcats.

Serge Ibaka – Thirty-three blocks in his last seven games. If you own him, congratulations on having defeated your opponent already this week. If you don’t own him and your team is facing the team that does own him … punt blocks.

Trevor Booker – 14/13, with two blocks in 41 minutes. He’s started the last two, playing well and owned in fewer than 10 percent of fantasy leagues. Now is the time to go with hot hands and guys playing a lot of minutes. Relatively speaking he’s the former and literally speaking, he’s also the latter. Also, he’s arguably one of the two best Trevors in the league.

Nick Young - Shooting .384 this month. When a fantasy player’s total worth rests on his jump shot and his jump shot leaves him in the dust … so should you.

Deron Williams – Returned after a week off due to the birth of his child. Speaking of new birth: the Nets beat the Celtics! Suck a thumb, snitches! His wrist is still hurting, but not as bad as your fantasy team without him. Full speed ahead.

Chris Paul – Speaking of elite point guards (or writing about an allusion, as it were), CPTrois dropped a 27/5/10/7 steal-line on the Nuggets after a slow start.

Blake Griffin – 8/9, not his best effort. None of the last four games have been his best effort. The player with the league’s second-highest number of double-doubles this season has rebounded 7, 9, 5, 9 in his last four. Disgustingly, this counts as his rookie wall.

Aaron Brooks – Kyle Lowry got flummoxed playing against his old scrimmage mate and turned the ball over a half-dozen times. Brooks got flummoxed at the thought that he was gift-wrapped an opportunity to carve out some playing time and shot 1-for-9 in 21 minutes. So, that’s that. Welcome back, Steve.

Jrue Holiday – If he’s available, grab Louis Williams while Holiday continues his drought. Screwy Louis has averaged 15.3/3.3 during the same three-game span Holiday has averaged 6.3/4. Jrue story – literally! As any pair of sisters will tell you, it’s comforting when ebbs and flows coincide with one another.

Al Jefferson – 30/17/6, with two blocks. He’s playing mad. No Jerry. No Deron. No Paul. He’s averaging four more points, two more rebounds and an extra assist and a half-block per game more than he has in any other month and no one is talking about it. Besides me, but I don’t count. And people from Utah. They’re probably talking about it. They don’t count either.

Devin Harris – Left the game with a hamstring injury. Then returned, making it a shamstring injury. But then he left again. So who knows. Shizz is too important for the already undermanned Jazz. Unless his injury is crippling, he’ll play in the next game.

David Lee – Really kinda blows this season. Never got into a groove, doesn’t move as quickly as he needs to. Has a rotting elbow. You know, stuff.

Marcus Thornton – A career-high 42 points. “Did you know he could do that?” – Monty Williams. Yes, Monty. Yes, we all knew he could do that.

Francisco Garcia – 13/4/6, with a pair of steals and blocks each. I don’t expect it to last (we’ve danced this dance with him before), but he’s playing well. Three games of this is better than no games of this.

Dwight Howard – Nine turnovers, Dwight!?! 6-for-11 from the line, Dwight!?! If getting boogeyed by the Lakers is wrong, I don’t wanna be Dwight.

Raymond Felton – 22/12 in 42 minutes. HaHA, jerks. George Karl’s playing them tandemly in heavy minutes, Felton at the “two.” Eat it Spellcheck Afflalo and Earl! La-hoo, zah-hers!

J.R. Smith – 18 points, with five threes. You eat it, Razzhole! I gots mine. So you did, J.R. My apologies. I can only assume when Afflalo returns, he’ll somehow fit in 30 points a game and the Nuggets will just blow every team out by 50.

Gary Forbes – Gary Forbes here. Seems I’m the odd-man-out, despite starting at SG. I played less than six minutes and have little else to show for it other than a little bit of bloat from drinking too much Gatorade without running around.

@hakasan: You’re right. Part of it is that both Hawes and Young have played a bit better, scrapped a little harder in the last two weeks, but outside of that, Brand is down across the board. He’s fouling more, turning it over more, scoring less and so on. Hang in there. He should bounce back sooner than later.

@Jeremy,
FWIW, i think you should be celebrating that you made it to the playoffs with slamons and mbah a moute…
it’s always tough coming off a few horrible games, and while i tend to think that a team has to bound back sometimes… (although it took the cavs 3 months to do it)
i think it’ll be a coin flip tonight… atl has been playing like crap, al horford is just coming back from ankle injury… who knows…

Ha, yeah mbah a moute was a game time pickup a week ago that I haven’t swapped anyone for due to play advantages. But I also made it to the playoffs despite drafting DWill and blowpez with my first and second picks. Look at me now though! On the same team and riding a five game win streak! Crazy how things change…

@barker: Oh, my bad. I misread your first post. Will you be able to use all three of the players you’re getting in return for Randolph? Since you probably won’t be keeping anyone involved, you gotta just go for the maximum stats now. That’s Bogut/Taj/Felton if you can play all three. If not, keep Z-Bo.